You could make this Triple Chocolate Easter Bunny Cake any time of the year in a regular pan. The dense batter is particularly well suited to the 3D bunny mold however!
If you are a chocolate lover this cake is for you! Chocolate cake + chocolate pudding + chocolate icing! The cake is a cinch to make because you use a cake mix and instant pudding for a base and pudding and butter for the icing. So you can spend a bit of time having fun with the decorating.
My friends have been so supportive of my blog efforts. They have been sending me their favourite recipes, lending my their mother's hand-written recipe books, ethnic family cook books - you name it.
One of the most interesting items lent to me were some bunny and lamb cake molds! Boy did I have fun with them! Thank you Margot!!
You have to put the 2 sides together and secure the seam with clamps and foil to avoid leakage in your oven. The bottom is open so you pour the batter into the bottom of the mold and fill about ¾ full. You bake them up side down. You can just see the feet on the side bars that steady them.
The molds didn't look that big. I thought at first one cake mix would fill both molds but not so... they are exactly sized to hold 1 cake mix each.
The [easyazon_link identifier="B000I1V33O" locale="CA" tag="thewinlovskit-20"]bunny mold[/easyazon_link] and the [easyazon_link identifier="B000O5NR5Q" locale="CA" tag="thewinlovskit-20"]lamb molds[/easyazon_link] are available on Amazon. (Note -if my enthusiasm inspires you to purchase one of these molds through my site I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.)
I made several cakes trying to decide on chocolate or vanilla cake, chocolate icing or vanilla icing. In the end I settled on a chocolate bunny with chocolate icing and vanilla icing and shredded coconut for the lamb.
I sprayed the inside of the molds liberally with cooking spray so the cakes would release easily. You also have to let the molds cool for about 20 minutes and then lay the mold on its side and remove the top half carefully.
Carefully slice off any rounded edge from the bottom of the cake so it will sit without rocking or tipping.
The frosting covers the detail lines from the molds so I had to add back some detail with the decorations and icing swirls. I know some bakers would find that a cinch but I am not really a detail person so mine look a little macabre with eyes not aligned or mis-sized. I used Easter candies to highlight the eyes and the ears and the nose.
Some of the nicest looking ones were the baked cakes just dusted with icing sugar and perhaps given an Easter like bow around the neck. Simple is sometimes best but then you would be missing out on the incredible icing that I used!
Ice Cream Bunnies on the side!
One of the easiest things was to fill the mold with this amazing Super Easy Black Cherry Ice Cream. You don't need an ice cream maker for this and it turns out nice and creamy with no crystals. And you only need 4 ingredients!! This will be my go-to ice cream recipe in future!
And I have to say - many bunnies are mottled in colour so this worked out pretty well!
A cake and ice cream combo made in heaven! Hope they brighten up your Easter!
Ingredients
Bunny Cake
- 1 Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge cake mix
- 1 4 oz Jello Chocolate Instant Pudding
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 4 eggs
Butter 'Cream' Icing
- 1 5 or 6 oz pkg Chocolate Pudding I used 160 gram Jello or 180 Gram Dr. Oetker (not instant)
- 1 ½ cups cold milk (use ½ the liquid the pudding mix calls for)
- ⅓ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 3 chocolate candies for eyes and nose
- 2 pink Ju Jubes or jellies for ears
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Spray cake mold or pan liberally with cooking spray.
- Mix cake mix and pudding powder together well.
- Mix water, oil and eggs.
- Add wet mixture to dry mixture and beat 2-3 minutes till batter is smooth.
- If using a mold bake about 50 minutes til a long skewer comes out clean. If using other cake pans bake according to cake mix directions for your cake pan size.
- When cake is done remove from oven and allow to cool about 20 minutes. Gently unmold the cake and allow cake to cool completely before icing.
Icing
- Add the liquid to the pudding powder in a sauce pan. Heat over medium heat stirring constantly til mixture becomes thick.
- Set the sauce pan in the sink with cold water to help cool it quickly. Stir while cooling. Beat in the unsalted butter.
- Ice the cake with a spatula or pipe the icing as desired.
- Add a chocolate candy for each eye and the nose. For the bunny cake cut the pink candy into a strip and highlight center of the bunny ear.
- Serve with Frozen Yogurt Ice Cream.
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